Seeing Green

[Re “Billion-Dollar Question: The Spending on Lake Champlain Cleanup Has Surpassed $900 Million. So Why Isn’t the Project on Track?” November 4]: Lake users on Franklin County social forums often argue and lament during the summer about who’s to blame for the lake being foul and the beaches closed. Many of us remember just a decade ago coming home from work or school and taking a dip in cool, clear water.

I think as long as the financial health of dairy farms is prioritized over the health of Lake Champlain (and other waterways), tourists will reconsider vacationing here. I feel horrible for all the people who own summer camps and cottages along St. Albans Bay, who can rarely go swimming and whose dogs are at risk around poisoned water. The bay is disgusting, causing the surrounding parks to stink. Even if you have a boat, you have to glide through noxious murk to enjoy other waters. Having neither a camp nor a boat, I avoid the lake in the summer altogether, sadly.

If farmers aren’t held accountable to better standards, the rest of Vermont suffers. I value farmers, but Vermont is so much more than maple syrup and cheddar. It’s a crying shame to see the lake turn green earlier and earlier each summer.

Shocking Increases

I was both shocked and disappointed by your recent article on rising electricity costs [“Rate Shock: Electricity Costs Are Rising in Vermont, and There’s No End in Sight,” October 21]. It ignored the affordability elephant in the room regarding energy costs: fossil fuels.

The article implied that Vermonters who switched to more efficient electric heating are paying a price for that decision. Yet the reality is that those who are stuck with fossil fuel heating and transportation are the ones truly paying the price — especially those most dependent on kerosene, heating oil, diesel and gasoline.

The article points out that electricity costs rose 5.5 percent over the past year yet fails to mention that heating oil prices rose 79 percent, and diesel 73 percent, over the same period. The article highlights that electricity rates rose 39 percent since 2019 but fails to compare it to the average cost of residential home heating, which rose 177 to 188 percent (and diesel 104 to 107 percent) over the same time.

These fossil fuel price spikes are shocking, entirely unregulated and out of our control compared to electric utilities that have heavy oversight over price increases.

If the interviewee had not switched to heat pumps and instead relied on heating oil, she’d be paying far more to stay warm with fossil fuels than she did last year. Certainly a lot more than 5.5 percent.

Fossil Failure

I’m baffled by the timing and focus of Seven Days’ recent story by Kevin McCallum — “Rate Shock” [October 21]. Highlighting the rise and impact of electric bills is fair. But what a failure to meet the moment! The article highlights — and its prime interviewee laments — the recent 5.5 percent rate increase by Green Mountain Power, when it’s actually the cost of fossil fuels that is skyrocketing.

At a moment when too many Vermonters are struggling to pay their energy bills — not just their electric bills — it’s critical that our respected media outlets contextualize the full picture of what’s happening and what might be done to help people. (For example, Efficiency Vermont and its Button Up effort offer useful tips for Vermonters looking to reduce their energy bills.)

As someone who has served on my local energy committee for almost 20 years to help my town and neighbors save money and reduce their reliance on planet-warming fossil fuels, I’m also disappointed that this article seems to pit those efforts as mutually exclusive. The primary cause of climate change is the combustion of fossil fuels. Using fewer fossil fuels is good for our planet and could save Vermonters significantly by reducing our reliance on a dirty, expensive global commodity. I hope Seven Days will tell that story.

Broken Trust

[Re “Oh, Canada: Historic Ties Between Vermont and Québec Communities Are Fraying. Reporting on Both Sides of the Border Suggests They Could Break,” October 28]: Back in the late 1980s I was the HR manager at Tivoly in Derby Line. I would drive down a hill to the back parking lot, walk across a footbridge over the Tomifobia River to the Québec side of the river, go alongside the old Butterfield Company manufacturing building, climb stairs, then cross a connecting covered bridge to our facility. Our conference room had kitty-corner plaques describing a border line that bisected the room.

There was no surveillance that I could see along the old buildings — and no one to stop me.

It was a trust that is now totally broken, unfortunately.

Real or Fake?

This letter responds to my experience at the Vermont Tech Jam and Hany Farid’s talk, “Totally Unreal: How Deepfakes Are Changing Everything” [October 24]. It raised a question: How can we tell what is real when images, voices and videos can be fabricated? For older adults, that challenge sits within a digital world already too difficult to navigate.

I am nearly 87, a retired University of Vermont professor who still teaches using computers, phones and digital tools. Services I need are buried behind passwords, passkeys, verification codes, websites and chatbots. Recently, after Facebook mistakenly distributed my Vermont-targeted advertisement nationwide and charged me hundreds of dollars, I spent days trying to reach a person and request a refund. Even comfort with technology did not protect me from the automated maze.

Through pastoral-care work, I see how much harder these systems can be for older people experiencing changes in memory, vision, hearing or dexterity. Adding deepfakes and convincing scams can lead to costly mistakes. Difficulty keeping up does not mean an older person lacks intelligence or judgment. It means the burden of adapting falls on people with too little support.

Technology is great, but it should not become the only doorway to banking, health care, government or trustworthy information. We need clear explanations, education and reachable human help — especially when people must decide whether what they see or hear is real.